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Saturday, March 16, 2013

Tomatomania

Yesterday I got a letter from Chris' parents who live in southern California. They had just been to a favorite nursery, Roger's Gardens, for an event called "Tomatomania". They both enthusiastically described the talk given by a grower. They even grabbed an extra copy of the tomato care sheet to send me. This sheet is quite useful as it is double sided and covers everything you'd need to know about growing tomatoes from soil preparation to diseases.
His dad wrote that they bought 3 tomato plants, along with "pots, fertilizer, dirt, cages, bug spray, etc."
His mom wrote that I would have loved it as much as they did, and while it was a 3-4 day event (!) they attended only one day, all day. She also said you can go to www.tomatomania.com for more info. Looking at that website made me a little hungry. I have to say I haven't eaten many tomatoes this winter after getting used to (spoiled by) fresh tomatoes from the garden last summer.
We are nowhere near ready to plant tomatoes in the Pacific Northwest, but their enthusiasm is catching, and I now am thinking about which tomatoes to plant - and where. Last year I listened to the advice of one of my mom's friends, who is also a Master Gardener. I picked out two that she suggested while shopping at Chapman's Greenhouse: Black Krim and Stupice.

Last year's garden tomatoes, Early Girl on the right

If you go to the Community Garden tab at the top of my blog page you'll find a list of what I grew and what I thought of the plants. Here's what I wrote about these tomatoes, "Tomato (Black Krim) :) heirloom with rosy color, tastes great, heavy fruit. Tomato (Stupice) :) large cherry tomatoes, very good, my favorite this year. The other tomato at the garden was an Early Girl and I decided to skip that this year in favor of another recommended variety.

Black Krim starting to ripen, huge, purple, and delicious tomatoes

I also had a tomato plant at home in a container on the upper deck. It was a random selection, Red Pear. I bought it more because I'd never had red pear tomatoes (only yellow). That plant grew about 6' tall and had loads of tiny tomatoes. I liked it, but if I do another tomato on the back deck I'll choose something smaller as it outgrew the trellis.

Red pear tomato, with a random Morning Glory blossom

As I said, I'm skipping the Early Girl this year. Do you have a favorite variety? If so, let me know in the comments below.

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About Me

I have lived in the Pacific Northwest most of my life. I've lived in downtown Portland, the suburbs, the woods, and currently in a townhouse with a "back yard" about 5' deep.
For the last 13 years I have been a computer drafter for a small landscape architecture company.
I am interested in: Rain gardens, community gardening, year-round color, container vegetables, native plants that require less water, and small space gardening. Use of vertical space and repurposed elements are not just trends, but have emerged out of necessity. I want to explore the creative ways we can garden in whatever space we may have.